PHILADELPHIA — Hello from Citizens Bank Park, where a suddenly banged-up Nationals club closes out the first half of the season this weekend before taking a much-needed All-Star break.

The two key injury updates you’re waiting for: 1) Ian Desmond is not in tonight’s lineup after taking a pitch off the pad of his right thumb. X-rays last night were negative, but I don’t think it would be shocking if Desmond missed the entire weekend series to let this thing heal. 2) Jayson Werth is playing after fouling a ball off his left foot in the final at-bat of last night’s game. So it looks like he’s fine.

Jordan Zimmermann, meanwhile, gets the start against a Phillies lineup that features a new face tonight: Grady Sizemore. The just-acquired veteran center fielder is making his Philadelphia debut, leading off. A.J. Burnett is on the mound.

7:08 p.m. — And we’re underway with a ball from A.J. Burnett to Denard Span. The skies have darkened here over the last hour or so, but it’s remained dry. Keep your fingers crossed.

7:13 p.m. — Here’s one we haven’t seen very much this year: Anthony Rendon grounding into a double play. It’s only the fifth time he’s done it. Made Denard Span’s leadoff single moot. Jayson Werth, meanwhile, didn’t look too good whiffing at a breaking ball from A.J. Burnett to end the top of the first.

7:18 p.m. — And a 1-2-3 bottom of the first for Jordan Zimmermann, who got a couple groundballs and then a deep flyout to center from Chase Utley. Only nine pitches for Zimmermann. To the second we go…

7:26 p.m. — The Nats looked like they had something going in the top of the second when Adam LaRoche led off with a double to right-center. Ryan Zimmerman moved him to third with a grounder to the right side. But that’s as far as they could advance him. Bryce Harper hit a bouncer to a drawn-in Utley at second base, with LaRoche not running on the play. That leaves Harper 4-for-32 since coming off the DL. And then Wilson Ramos grounded out, killing the rally.

7:36 p.m. — Just when you thought Zimmermann was settling in for a dominant night on the mound, the Phillies roughed him up pretty good in the bottom of the second. They strung together three straight well-struck base hits off him, capped by Domonic Brown’s 2-run double to right-center. Just like that, the Nats trail 2-0 after a surprising (and quick) outburst vs. Zimmermann.

7:59 p.m. — And Zimmermann’s troubles continue in the bottom of the third. After Sizemore led off with a single to right, Rollins launched a high fastball to right field for a 2-run homer that made it 4-0 Phillies. Zimmermann’s problem tonight: He’s finding too much of the plate. Just about all six of the hits he has surrendered have come on pitches right over the plate. The Nats have some work to do to get back in this one.

8:13 p.m. — Matt Williams was talking about Bryce Harper this afternoon, saying he was seeing better signs at the plate from the kid despite his numbers still looking bad. Williams noted that Harper had been “calming down” at the plate, not overanxious and not trying to do too much. Well, he’s looked pretty antsy so far tonight. He has made two outs on two pitches, grounding out each time. Not what the Nats are looking for. Still 4-0 in the middle of the fourth.

8:17 p.m. — Oh, no. This is not good. After throwing a 1-2 pitch to Cameron Rupp, Zimmermann made a little motion to the dugout. Out came Matt Williams, Steve McCatty and head trainer Lee Kuntz to talk to him. And out of the game the club’s lone All-Star has come. Craig Stammen in. This is not at all what the Nats wanted to see. Stay tuned for updates, obviously.

8:39 p.m. — Things have settled down here, with Stammen retiring all five batters he has faced so far. It remains 4-0 Phillies after five, but obviously the rest of this game is going to take a backseat to the Zimmermann news. Here’s my full story on him, which will be updated once we get any new info.

8:58 p.m. — It’s 5-0 now after Rupp lined an RBI double off the left-field wall. It would’ve been 6-0 if not for a great relay from Harper to Espinosa to Ramos to get Brown at the plate to end the sixth.

9:03 p.m. — Well, here’s some good news: Bryce Harper just homered, a rocket to right field off Burnett to snap his 4-for-33 slump since coming off the DL. Still 5-1 Phillies at the stretch.

9:15 p.m. — But the Phillies get the run right back, with Rollins launching his second homer of the night to make it a 6-1 game in the seventh. It’s Rollins’ first 2-homer game since 2012, when he also did it to the Nats (homering both times off Edwin Jackson).

9:36 p.m. — Good news: Ryan Zimmerman delivered the Nats’ first hit with a man in scoring position in seven tries, cutting the deficit to 6-2 and leaving two more men in scoring position for Harper. Bad news: Harper then popped up the next pitch to end the inning. So, Bryce has now seen five total pitches in four at-bats tonight. One of them, obviously, turned into a home run. Three of them, though, turned into outs.

9:45 p.m. — OK, last chance for the Nats. They’re down 6-2 heading to the ninth. It’ll be Ramos, Espinosa and a pinch-hitter against Ken Giles.

Next time I start to get peeved about some minor tweak I don’t like in the Nats’ lineup I will remember the day that the Phillies batted a .218/.288/.324 hitter in the leadoff spot and a .228/.307/.395 hitter in the cleanup spot.

baseball is indeed a funny game, for all the grief I give these boys, if someone had told me back in mid May that the Nats would tied for first with 3 games before the break, plus up 2 in the loss column due to the 2 extra games they have to play, I would have done cartwheels. I really was hoping they would not be more than 5 games out by the break. Instead, they have an opportunity to actually be in first by the break.

This is another opportunity for Espi to prove he can step up, for that fact the Nats bench has a great opportunity. I would rest Desi this series and let Espi or Frandsen fill his role

They finish the month with the dodgers and have a three game series with the marlins, who yes at the moment are 3 games back from 500. But yes they should fare well against the phillies, padres and cubs would seem to be friendly matchups. Then again, so would the mets.

Oh, Joy!….we have to watch Espi’s at bat futility all weekend. That is so painful. He has the “I am going to strike out no matter what” look on his face even before he takes the first swing. If he is so pathetic from the left side, why doesn’t he quit switch hitting?

Nats playing well. cant slip now. Only Mick will might not kill me for this but was at last nights game. With Bryces futility at the plate, when Machado came up to bat I was yelling at him to throw his bat at Bryce. Got some good laughs. I guess there is people in the world as SICK as me.

I notice that Steven Souza had a 4 for 5 day yesterday at Syracuse, bringing his stats for the year to .374 with a .451 OBP, a .615 Slugging % and 21 Stolen Bases. I don’t read too much into that in regards to how that might translate into Major League performance — it is not long ago that Steve Lombardozzi was flirting with .400 after a similar number of bats. But I would like to salute what represents true AAA excellence.

Interesting little quirk about this template in WordPress … well, another one, anyway: apparently, one can only “report comment” on posts that also offer a “reply.” If they’re at the end of the reply thread, there’s no option. Noticed that a while back, just getting around to mentioning it. Doesn’t seem to work well even when it is there, frankly, but one lives in hope, don’t one?

Question for all of you Nats fans. This might have been discussed before, but how about Werth at first base next year and leave Zim in left? Werth looks shakier by the day fielding anything on the ground out there in right field. Arm is getting weaker also. Thanks.
Also: Why does Zim stand so far from the plate when batting. A good pitcher that can throw on the outside black will easily get him out. That’s what O’Day was doing to him last night.

knoxvillenat - Jul 11, 2014 at 6:17 PM

To the first question, Werth to first base is not too far fetched at all in fact I have brought that up here before. If the Nats move Harper to right field than the outfield experience with Zim in left and Harper’s time in RF, definitely may merit some concern.

It’s still a little early for the Nats (as opposed to us) to worry about what the Braves are doing. If it were mid September, or the Nats were six behind right now as they were this time last year, that’s another matter.

manassasnatsfan - Jul 11, 2014 at 7:14 PM

Since we don’t play we can pay attention. I pay attention to every team every game. (Playing fantasy ball makes watching all fun too)

Totally clueless period! His bat is an insult to major league baseball.

natszee - Jul 11, 2014 at 7:51 PM

If this team were hitting with authority and scoring tons of runs a case could be made for Danny’s glove. Sadly, the Nat’s can’t afford his stick (or lack there of). Hard to believe we have no farm hands that can hit and field at this level.Mike Rizzo needs to trade one of his 3,000 pitchers for a 2B and back up SS.

manassasnatsfan - Jul 11, 2014 at 7:44 PM

Come on Anthony we need to score

manassasnatsfan - Jul 11, 2014 at 7:46 PM

0 for 4 RISP. When are RISP I’d reasonable we do well. Today the poor RISP was one of the things Rizzo said he was disappointed in.

The approach again makes no sense. Burnett came in with the second most walks in the NL. He’s through 3 on 31 pitches. This isn’t the coaches fault, Matt (again) made clear the plan was to be patient, as it should be. Yet when the game starts, it seems like they ignore the plan.

davecydell - Jul 11, 2014 at 7:50 PM

How I wish the Nats had Freddie Freeman.
So many RISPs, so few runs
Freddie would have 100 RBIs by now in the right Nats lineup spot.